Elected officials from both sides of the aisle and progressive activists fumed Wednesday after Gov. Phil Murphy announced he signed the controversial bill overhauling the state’s Open Public Records Act into law.
Media organizations, good government groups, and transparency advocates have spent weeks urging Murphy to veto the bill, saying it would gut the law that governs what government documents are allowed to be released to the publi
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“Public records are how we shine a spotlight on corruption and hold officials accountable when they’re not doing what’s best for their communities. New Jersey just took a big step forward with our first primary election without ‘the line’ on the ballot, and now the state is taking two even bigger steps backward. This is a dark day for transparency, accountability, and democracy in New Jersey,” Rodriguez said.
The law places limits on when public entities are forced to pay the legal fees of people who win public records disputes in court, shields certain types of documents from public view, and allows judges to ban some people from making any requests at all.
Murphy in a statement said that while he believes some of the criticism of the bill is not irrational, overall the legislation makes “relatively modest” changes to the Open Public Records Act. Those thoughts were echoed by one of the bill’s sponsors, Sen. Tony Bucco (R-Morris), who noted that the bill would require the Government Records Council